Sinabro: Miscellany

These are stuffs that just didn't fit elsewhere. 'Gotta keep them somewhere.

Manuals

These are the manuals that I looked for online at some point and could not find. When I finally found the hardcopy that came with the instrument, I wanted to post it somewhere in hopes that it would be useful to a fellow researcher, and here it is:

Cary 219 Spectrometer, Operator's Manual
Fluke PM3370A, PM3380A, PM3390A, PM3382A, PM3384A, PM3392A, PM3394A: User manual, Reference Manual, and MATH+ User Manual

You may find a bigger archive at The BoatAnchor Manual Archive. I would have submitted this manual there, except that I found out it was not a general archive of instrument manuals. Please let me know if anyone knows of a larger general-purpose manual collection.

Some notes:

Manuals I scan are in DjVu format, mainly because I had better experiences with it than PDF. There are free readers for all major platforms (search for DjVu).
If you ever looked for a rare manual, you know that there are people selling electronic copies of manuals such as these for $15 each or even more. Please do not patronize them—by buying from such people, you are perpetuating an illegal practice (first sale applies only to the original copy) and immoral profiteers.
However, strictly speaking, I also do not have any authorization for posting these manuals here. Nonetheless, I believe this is the right thing to do—after all, what good is a manual without a functional instrument, which you already dearly paid for (... presumably many years ago)? If you do own the copyrights to these manuals, please consider posting these scanned copies on your company support page, and I will be more than happy to take my copy down.

Screenshots

Some screenshots of interest (to me). I believe I either own the copyright to everything here, or it's within fair use.

DeathToAds.png: Frankly, I don't really like Firefox AdBlock extension too much and don't use it myself. How did I block the ads on this CNET page? The filtering HTTP proxy, privoxy! This is one of my greatest finds from my Windows-using years. It makes workplace browsing safer by blocking ads (... and unavoidable NSFW ads on certain sites I frequent).
VistaBS.png: WTF?!?! Call me paranoid, but this is semi-subliminal advertising. Vista has nothing to do with the searched-for result, and besides, anyone recommending Vista to anyone without a specific reason should be shot like a dog.

Enemy List

This started with a local business where I was quite mistreated as a customer. But as I become more interested in the importance of freedom and public justice, I am focusing my energies in that directon.

Journals that charge more than what they are worth: and my criterion is whether UCB's library subscribes to it or not. If it doesn't, then it means a premier public university cannot afford to subscribe to them, which means these journal publishers maliciously block the progress of mankind. These are journals that I personally had problems with and will never publish anything in:
- Physica Scripta: UCB seems to subscribe to last 10 years of articles, which means they are charging way too much for what should have been in the public domain already.
UAW 2865 Local: I never liked unions. And in addition,
- They do not represent my will:
  - I do not care for wage increases. I am quite well paid as it is now.
  - I do not care for the department paying for tuitions of UGSIs. I never suffered for not having that benefit in my time.
  - I do not care for GSIs with families. Everyone should realize that their life decisions come with costs and not burden others unfairly for that.
- They never cared about representing my will. They only contacted me for head-counting for the contract renewal, despite my eligibility for two years.
And this is why you should hate them, if you are a student:
- They drive tuition costs up. The university is not a private corporation. The union's unreasonable demands, when accepted, must be funded somehow, and there is no "profit margin" to work as a buffer. In the face of declining public funding and rising costs (due to unions), the administration has no choice but to raise fees.
UCPD at UCLA, and police department at University of Florida: Tasers can be instrument of torture, according to UN, which means officers of these organizations tortured students on the campus property. As far as I know, no particular officer was disciplined for their disregard of civil rights and students' dignity, which puts the blame on the entire department, if not the administration of these universities.
Foxconn: For deliberately and willfully seeking to harm those using free operating systems, including GNU/Linux.
Sony: Ripping is stealing, according to Sony BMG. Since I cannot boycott Sony BMG, for the simple fact that I would never have bought anything from them anyway, I boycott Sony.
Comcast: The company does not provide the service promised and lies through their teeth when caught. That is a textbook-case casus belli.
Skype: For their crimes against openness and software freedom.
Patent lawsuit companies: especially those who initiate one.
- SanDisk: For more details, see the Slashdot article. I, for my part, will never buy a SanDisk product ever again—initiating a patent lawsuit is an unforgivable sin in my book, so there is nothing SanDisk, short of selling all company assets and donating it to FSF, that can stop my boycott of the brand.
- Trend Micro: Personally, I think a lot of antivirus products are scams and the companies are scums, but patent trolls are even dirtier trash. I think I have a PCI wireless card from Trend Micro—you can be sure that it's the last Trend Micro product I will ever own.
- Seagate: I don't think explanations are necessary here. They are deliberately using patent in order to prevent better products from competing with their inferior products. I am never buying Seagate drives again (also Maxtor, per their merger a while ago).
Businesses with no concern for its customer privacy, that is those who participated in Facebook Beacon:
- I have dealt with these companies before but never will again: eBay, Fandango, and LiveJournal. I have a specific, independent complaint against LiveJournal: they would not let me claim my rightful username—they let some asshole hijack the name that I have every claims on.
- I have never dealt with these companies, and apparently, never will: College Humor, Busted Tees, iWon, Citysearch, Pronto.com, echomusic, Travelocity, Allposters.com, Blockbuster, Bluefly.com, CBS Sports, Dotspotter, ExpoTV, Gamefly, Hotwire, Joost, Kiva, Kongregate, Live Nation, Mercantila, The NBA, The New York Times, Overstock.com, (RED), Redlight, Seamless Web, Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Pictures, STA Travel, TheKnot, TripAdvisor, Travel Ticker, Typepad, viagogo, Vox, Yelp, WeddingChannel.com, Zappos
Airlines and airports that pretend to treat "First Class" and "Business Class" customers nicer by simply mistreating the rest of the customers horribly. In particular, they:
- Make the line for regular customers hard to find—to make "First Class" lines look more prominent?
- Make the walk to the security checkpoint for regular customers intentionally longer, going round, round, and round the terminal. At one point, I saw three escalators out of four in the center being blocked: one used for "First Class" customers, and other functioning escalators blocked for no reason other than making them walk all the way out the the escalators at the end of the terminal, only to return to the security check point at the center.
These are the airlines that I have personally observed to engage in such disservice (to both "First Class" customers, since their service isn't actually better, and to regular customers, since their service got a lot worse), and I will not be flying:
- United
- American
- Delta: I have an independent complaint against Delta as well in that their policy plain sucks. Can you believe that these thieves charged me $100 not to fly me to a destination that Southwest flew me for only $160 (ticket bought 1 hour before departure time)?
And these are airports where I have experienced such discrimination, and I will not be flying through:
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- (I almost put Denver (DEN) here because they have "priority line" for security gate, but they have free public wireless, so, for the moment, I'm ambivalent.)
In all reality, this probably means that I will only be flying Southwest (despite the recent unwelcome changes), and only through small airports, such as the Oakland Airport.
Princeton Review: They bait-and-switch. They advertise "free diagnostic GRE test", but when they have your information, they put you through loop of links that never lead to an actual test. What a disgrace to the "Princeton" name.
Sears and Kmart: For their wanton disregard of customer privacy, or even safety. I haven't bought much from them before, but now I know I will never buy anything from them and will tell everyone not to buy anything from them—unless they have some mental disorder and like to reveal their privates to the world.